New Macbook Pros

bwana

bwana

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Synaesthesia said:
The 13" is still Core 2 Duo, expect everyone to bitch about it. Well the 13" is arguably still the best value. The 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo is faster than before, although still slightly slower than the Core i5 Mobile, it consumes less power. So you get 10 hours battery life. The nVidia 330M is much faster than 9400M. 4Gb RAM, 250Gb Hard drive and a great quality screen for $1199.

Also now you have more of a reason to get a 15" or 17"
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I got a 13" a couple months back and so far I don't see a compelling reason to upgrade - except for the missus who wants this one.
 
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titeroper

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In roadrunners defense: these were expected and just took a long,long,long,long time to come, so him/her linking to an OFFICIAL announcement is quite welcome I think...:)
 
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Frankie

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bwana said:
I got a 13" a couple months back and so far I don't see a compelling reason to upgrade - except for the missus who wants this one.
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I got the 17" a couple of months back, and still happy with it, but had I known then that the new ones were soon to appear, I'd have continued using my company HP Compaq nc6320 while I wait.



Just received the email announcement:
New Core i5 and Core i7 processors.
The 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro feature the fastest dual-core processors available, which boost performance up to 50 percent.*

Next-generation NVIDIA graphics.
With faster graphics than ever before, MacBook Pro brings high performance to everything from 3D games to photos and videos.

Up to 10 hours of battery life.
The battery in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro lasts up to 10 hours (8 to 9 hours on the 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro) on a single charge.**

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/per...9f05e68922cc9b113&cp=em-P0009240-160270&sr=em
 
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koffiejunkie

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assagai said:
strange that the 17" doesn't have the i7 option.
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Looks like they were just slow to update the specs. It does now have a choice between i5 and i7. So the question now is weather the 13" will get the i5/i7 treatment too?
 
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PeterCH

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NameOfBeast said:
They have 512GB SS drives!

A 17'' MBP with a 2.66GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB of RAM and 512GB SSD comes to ... $4200. I wonder how much Core will charge!
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Which sucks because Intel make the best SSD and they're only in 80GB and 160GB flavours. An updated version will be 320GB. That 512GB SSD may be Toshiba which is a second best after Intel. But I would still go with Intel.
 
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assagai

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I see the old 2.8 17" is more expensive than the new i5 17" at digicape, i wonder what the comparative benchmarks are like.
 
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PeterCH

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NameOfBeast said:
Better, how? Speed, reliability?
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Intel is consistenly better than everyone else in terms of random reads and writes. Some Indilix controller drives are able to achieve faster write speeds than mainstream Intel SSDs but the premium Intel SLC based drives are overall fastest in that department too but much more expensive. Intel has had the edge longer and I would stick to them for the next 1-2 generations at least - it's better to buy a Toyota than a Tata, you know.

Peter, you have some experience with SSD on a MacPro. Is it worth the (considerable) expense?
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Very fast BOOT UP times - just a few seconds. I still have to wait for the other 3 HDDs to unpark but once they do, the system takes 2-3 sec and it's ready for work (Adobe Bridge, QuickSilver, iBurst loaded up).

Very fast program start-up, instantaneous. The plugins/filters (Final Cut Pro) still get enumerated but the process is much faster (2-3x). Very fast READ and WRITE at 70MB/sec continuously (and randomly).
My Intel X25M is only 160GB but new 320GB models are meant to come soon.

I also own a Toshiba 64GB in my VersaPro and that flies at 110MB/sec (Intel is 200MB/sec for read) but random reads may not be as good - I installed the latest Media Player 11 on my netbook yesterday and the installation process took quite long (although I can't compare to an HDD solution), so it may be that Toshiba is already struggling with random writes and reads - even though the drive is 80% empty. With an AV installed, my Atom 1.86GHz Windows XP netbook boots in under 15sec till the time the screen is completely usable. Programs also start instantaneously.

SSD is great for portability too. I don't have to worry about crashing my portable's SSD. It uses less juice.

An SSD is still not a necessity on desktops, unless you're editing HUGE 1080P/2K video files but then you'll need a few of these babies.

For data safety, an SSD is worthwhile on laptops. If you're worried about HDD crashes, an SSD is ideal.
 
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koffiejunkie

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PeterCH said:
My Intel X25M is only 160GB but new 320GB models are meant to come soon.
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I wonder how much this will cost. 320GB will actually be (just) big enough for me. So far the only option I have is the Kingston V+ Series 512GB, but it's kinda expensive (and a class lower than the X25M, as far as I know).
 
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